A worker from Uttar Pradesh, N. Akash Singh (26), was killed after a hydraulic jack failed while lifting a concrete girder as part of the construction of an elevated corridor on New Natham Road here on Saturday evening. The girder came crashing down at the site.
Madurai Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar, who inspected the accident site along with State Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, said the work had been stopped until an enquiry into the accident was completed.
The accident occurred at Narayanapuram around 4.30 p.m. The girder is part of a ramp being provided for vehicles coming from Gohkale Road to get down at Naryanapuram. It is part of the 7.3-km-long elevated highway to provide a shorter route for Madurai-Tiruchi section.
Akash Singh, who was standing atop the pier-cap to lift the 35-metre-long girder for placing a rubber bearing, fell down after his hand got entangled in the gap of the girder, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) P. Thangadurai.
Mr. Rajan said it was a “work-spot accident” and it had raised several questions on the administrative mechanism and training of the workers involved in critical work. The work was being executed by the National Highways Authority of India.
“Only two young workers were on the spot to lift the (70-tonne) girder. Whether it required more workers and whether they were trained to handle such a work need to be probed,” he said.
The girder had been cast in-situ and it was being lifted using a hydraulic jack. “When one of the cables got snapped, the girder wobbled and fell down,” the Collector said.
Another worker, Saroj Kumar, who was initially said to have been injured, returned to the site to narrate the incident to the officials.
The Collector said how the hydraulic jack failed would be investigated.
The work of constructing the four-way elevated highway from Chokkikulam upto Chettikulam started in Nòvember 2018 and was scheduled to be completed by November 2020. It is part of four-laning of Madurai-Natham-Thuvarankurichi highway. However, the work got delayed due to COVID-19 lockdown and consequent reverse migration of north Indian workers.
